The Roadhouse

This program officially starts the weekend along the North Shore and across the North Woods. Hosts Buck Benson & Dick Swanson and producer Ann Possis provide two hours packed with insightful interviews, weekend happenings, local features and toe-tapping music. You never know quite what to expect on the Roadhouse!

Buck spoke recently with Dr. Tyler Moore, professor of computer science and engineering at Southern Methodist University, about Bitcoin, a relatively new digital currency with no central authority. Learn more about it, how it works, and why it's growing in popularity. Hear about security and other concerns too.

John & Harriet, a couple from the Faroe Islands, joined Dick Swanson July 5 in Studio A. They're visiting Cook County for a few weeks, and gave a talk and slide show about their homeland at North House later that evening. The Faroe Islands are a remote, rocky place in the sea almost equidistant from Norway, Denmark, and Scotland.

Keith Morris made an epic kayak journey recently, traveling 100 miles from Fall Lake in Ely to his cabin on Poplar Lake, in a kayak he built himself. Hear his conversation with Dick Swanson, and learn all about it.

Dick Swanson chatted with Sue Leaf June 28 about her new book, "A Love Affair with Birds," from the U of MN Press. The book is a wonderful portrait not only of Thomas Sadler Roberts, the father of Minnesota ornithology, but of the state and the Twin Cities in their early history.

Beth & George Gage, directors of "Bidder 70," joined Dick Swanson recently to talk about their award-winning documentary. "Bidder 70" tells the story of Tim DeChristopher, a college student who entered a BLM oil and gas lease auction in order to save 22,000 acres of wilderness. Tim was indicted on two felony charges, but became a climate justice leader before serving time in federal prison. Hear what Beth & George have to say about Tim's remarkable act of peaceful protest.

Buck chatted June 14 with Cloquet shipwreck hunter Jerry Eliason who, with a team of friends and family, recently located what they believe to be the Henry B. Smith, which went down in a storm in November 1913. Jerry says it was the find of a lifetime.

Dr. Bin He, biomedical engineering professor at the U of MN, is lead author of a new study showing that people can use their thoughts to move objects, using a noninvasive computer interface. He spoke with Buck June 7 about the technology and its implications, including the potential to help people with disabilities. You can watch a video demo at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpHy-fUyXYk